The sound of laser weapons firing brought my gaze to the farthest part of the Badlands.
The humans had arrived.
Renaldo and his top enforcers didn’t usually see the war zone up close and personal. He preferred to have other people fight his battles. More to the point, other monsters. As if trying to steal Weren technology wasn’t bad enough, he’d taken our own people and turned them into weapons against us.
Not this time.
This time, I was going to make sure that asshole experienced the war he so brutally instigated.
Cutting across the sand, I dodged fighting soldiers and mutants doused in blue to take a spot closer to the human army. As I ran, I holstered my anti-juice weapon and pulled a laser gun free. When I got close enough to the human leader, it would be daggers and fists… to the death. But until then, I planned to carefully pick off Renaldo’s people. After this day, none of them would threaten the Weren again.
Luxoria would be safe.
Safe for us to thrive and grow families. To heal the fractures caused by those who came before us. To be happy for the first time in ages.
As determination filled me, I was overcome by my sense of purpose. This was what I was meant to do. Who I was meant to be. An in between. A bridge, bringing our past and future together.
Suddenly all the feelings I’d lived with my whole life, of not quite belonging anywhere, feelings of betrayal and sacrifice and regret… they all made sense. They were all leading to this moment.
Ashla and Tavia fought side by side. Alpha guards were back to back with omega wolves. Adalai and Dagger laid waste to the mutants as human forces flooded in from the sides.
And in the distance… blue smoke swirling with purple.
Secure the Badlands first, my inner wolf commanded firmly. Conquer the human army, and the beta rebels will fall. Cut off the head and the snake will die. The animal was right, and I needed to trust it just like I did when mating Ashla.
Aiming for the human forces that were quickly invading the Badlands, I let my laser burn a path to Renaldo. Fire, advance. Fire, dodge, advance. Methodical and lethal. For Weren.
A ferocious growl was the only warning I got before I was tackled to the ground. My body rattled with the force of the blow as I hit the sand, a slobbering mutant hovering over me. His glowing eyes told me all I needed to know. He intended to kill me.
Struggling, I tried to buck him off, narrowly avoiding drops of acidic drool as they fell to the sand near my head with a sickening sizzle. The laser would only be an annoyance to the monster, but if I could get to my juice gun, I could get a leg up.
I kicked upward, aiming to take out a kneecap as his fangs snapped, trying to find skin to shred. I wasn’t ready to shift yet. I needed to be in my human form to get to Renaldo. With another mutant roar, spittle coated my skin, burning as his half-formed claws ripped at my side.
Shit. I wasn’t going down at the hands of a mutant. Wasn’t fucking happening.
Punching and kicking, did almost nothing, but with each hit, I was able to move farther down his body. If I could get to his legs, and cripple him somehow—
A yelp, half-animal, half-human, pierced my ears and when I pulled back my fist it was covered in blue. Anti-juice.
The mutant shrieked and contorted, rolling away as more anti-juice exploded on him. I didn’t waste any time, finding my feet and wiping the acid from my neck. Hopefully Evander had some concoction to soothe the drool burn. That shit was painful.
Across the distance, I locked eyes with my mate. Her juice gun was still aimed in our direction, and her worried gaze told me she’d just saved my ass.
An omega always fights beside their mate. I knew she was remembering the same phrase she spoke to me our first night together.
Dragging my attention away, I refocused on my target. Renaldo fought alongside his enforcers, cutting down omegas and the few alpha guards who’d made it past the mutants. Not for long if I had my way.
I continued, closing in on the human until I was fist to fist with the last of his enforcers. In one blow, the man was out cold and there was no one left standing between me and Renaldo.
“Weren,” he spat, looking me up and down like I was as significant as a cockroach. “That was my best enforcer. I’ll make you pay for this.”
He didn’t even have the respect to look worried. Didn’t he know this was the end for him?
“You used our own people against us,” I snarled. “Turned them into monsters. Do you have anything to say for yourself?” Was it just the omega part of me who wanted an explanation now? The Solen who’d been an alpha soldier for so long wouldn’t have waited to hear the answer.
Renaldo pulled his daggers, marching forward, murder in his eyes as he answered. “Only that I’d do it again. A thousand times again. Your kind is an abomination.”
Fury flooded my veins. I’d heard those sentiments too many times in my life, in regards to our omegas. But these abominations were about to eliminate his forces and take back their lives.
Dagger in hand, I rushed him, taking a slice to my forearm in order to reach his midsection. He didn’t even flinch at the contact, and I knew he must be hopped up on some version of his own juice.
Shit.
He favors his left side, my animal offered. Fake an attack on the right, twist and come around from the back, finish him with a
